May 2009 Archives

BOOK NAME: Feathers
AUTHOR: Jaqueline Woodson

   
"Hope is the thing with feathers" was Frannie's favorite poem. Frannie is a twelve-year-old girl who lives during the time of segregation. She was born in an African-American family and has a brother who is deaf. At school she is bullied by two boys named RayRay and Trevor, and there's some new kid from the white side of town moves into the town and now goes to their school. To make matters worse Frannie's mom has been acting a little weird when she finds out that she's pregnant.  The story is all about how Frannie struggles through tough times in and out of her private life.

    I would give this book 3 out of 5. It was pretty hard understanding at parts but by the end it got easier. It's kind of an interesting topic in a sort of way that it's not the usual thing that you see sometimes in books. It is definitely not the kind of book that has action in every chapter, but it's more about what's going on around the characters. I was glad to see that it was a short read just because I needed to take a break from those heavier books.
   
Post in the comments if you have ever felt strange at a new school or felt left out and can relate to Frannie.

BOOK NAME: World's Dumbest Crooks and Other True Tales of Bloopers, Botches & Blunders
AUTHOR: Allan Zullo

This book is about some of the world's dumbest crooks, stupidest sports plays and other stuff like that.

Here's one example. This robber robbed a store and was so tired afterward that he thought he'd sit down for a while and he accidentally fell asleep! In the store he just robbed! The police caught him while he was taking his nap.

Then, there was this lady who had a vending machine at her store. She brought her cat to work everyday. She was going to sell her vending machine, but her cat jumped in the machine trying to get some food. The cat ended up on a five-hour trip to the store of the new owner!

There is another one was about a quarterback on a football team during a game. His team was lined up and he took the ball to the ref and said it was a practice ball. Then he yelled "Hike!" He kept the ball and ran all the way to the touchdown. And the referees said it counted!

This book was interesting because it had so many funny stories about how stupid and funny people could be. The book has chapters about crooks, sports, animals, movie stars and a few others.

I hope you enjoy this book if you end up getting it. It's really funny.

BOOK NAME: Fudge-a-mania
AUTHOR: Judy Blume

This book is about two families that live in New York City, the Hatchers and Tubmans. The parents from each family like each other but the kids from each family do NOT like each other. The parents of the families decide to go to Maine for the summer. The kids think they are going live in houses next door to each other, like neighbors. This would be bad enough, but they actually have to live in the SAME house for the summer.  

The main person in the story is Peter. He is the oldest kid in the Hatcher family and Fudge (not his real name) is the youngest. Sheila is the youngest kid in the Tubman family. Sheila and Peter are enemies. This makes for a lot of trouble during summer vacation.  What makes it even harder is that Peter and Sheila are both given the job of taking care of Fudge during the summer and Fudge is a lot of work! 

But it goes from bad to worse when Grandpa Tubman (Sheila's grandpa) and Grandma Hatcher (Peter and Fudge's grandma) decide to get married. This means Peter and Sheila, although they are sworn enemies, are now related and in the same family. But they made a promise that even though they are related, they will always hate each other!

I really liked this book. I tried to read it all at one time, but my parents told me I had stop reading and turn off my light since it was a school night!

BOOK NAME: Explorabook: A Kids' Science Museum in a Book    
AUTHOR: John Cassidy

If you like science, you'll love this book. It doesn't tell a story, but it tells you a lot about different parts of science, like magnetism, optical illusions, reflections, light waves and bacteria. One of the pages of the book is actually a mirror on both sides. Another page is like a giant magnifying glass that you can see through, but it's made of thin plastic, not glass.

My favorite part is the optical illusions chapter, which shows all kinds of photos and drawings that fool your eye into thinking it's something else. On one page, there's what appears to be a perfect square on top of a bunch of circles, but when you look closer you realize all the sides are curved. In one photo, there are two girls standing next to two mirrors and one appears to be twice the size of the other, but really they're the same size because the mirrors are so different in size.

The book has a lot of funny pictures, including one of scientists smelling the arm pits of different people for an experiment. My brothers and I always laugh at that one. The book also comes with two packs of Agar, which you can mix with water to grow bacteria that you can see under a microscope. Bacteria likes to eat Agar.

This book makes science fun and funny. 

The chances to win cool stuff during Get Caught Reading month continues with this awesome Magic Tree House Passport contest from National Geographic and our friends at Random House.

Join Jack and Annie (the two main characters in the book series by Mary Pope Osborne, if you haven't yet read them!) on an adventure across the U.S. What's on their "road trip?" Hmm....ghosts in New Orleans, polar bears in Alaska, tornadoes in Kansas, surfing in Hawaii ... a quick trip back in time to the Civil War and much, much more!

Here's how it works:

STEP 1: Print the entry form.

STEP 2: Answer Magic Tree House trivia questions to earn official passport stamps and add all nine stamps to your map.

STEP 3: Mail it in for chance to win cool trip to the Grand Canyon for a family of four including a helicopter ride!



(AD) Click here for more details and for the trivia questions!

May is Get Caught Reading month. And you, our faithful DogEared readers can help spread the word.

Plus, we've teamed up with some generous book publishers and the Get Caught Reading folks to give you the chance to win prizes... um, just for reading. Yup! You read that correctly. JUST FOR READING. Which we know you love to do, well, as much as breathing!

Here's how it works. If an adult you know catches you reading, fill out this card and send it in for a chance to win these cool prizes! And who doesn't need awesome new book to load up your bookshelves or take on summer vacation?

Click here to read the Official Rules.